The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1887-12-02
miscellaneous.
THE CABIN BOY.

tbS-ioO"i tuC iOOun tuub ONeTlOD KS tQ
Channel. From its windows, when the at
mosphere is favorable, can see the Frenc
coast line; and when there is a gale, and tn
steamers are blowing heavily in the waves
and the sail-vessels are scudding under bar
poles, love to take my sewing or my bool
into one of the great bow windows, and en-
joy the grand view.
My father built the house so near the sea
because he had been sailor all his life, anC
could not live far away from salt water
| When he died, the place came to me- an(
tue man married happened to hold an i'm
portant position in the revenue service, and
it was precisely the thing that we SHOULD
live In this dear old home So my children
were born here, grew up here, and two are
buried in the Cliff Cemetery, over wonder
They, the living, are all married now, anC
living in houses of their own, from Land.
End to John O'Groat's;" but each summer
the old home is full of them and their fami
lies, and my dear grandchildren, sometimes
dozen OF them together, make me young
again with their mirth and laughter anC
charming child ways.
And the picture?
1t hung there in my own childhood it has
hung there ever since. thought it the
bravest, handsomest picture that could be
and not child nor grandchild of mine bur
has been attracted to 1t from the time thai
anything was noticed.
No ordinary picture is it, you may be sure
III II hau been made in these cheap days of big
imperial photographs, and coIored lith0
graphs, aud gaudy chromos, there would be
| nothing about 1t worth five minutes notice
But il you look in the lower LETT hand corner
you will find the mark, ~. h. pink, 1885
and that, may tell you, was the mark OF Sir
Joshua Reynolds. the most famous painter OF
the reigns Of the -Four Georges.
SO IL is painting, and no common one
| either. Those colors were laid on by a mas.
ter hand. 1t is grand size-six feet by four
and half could turn my eyes from it and
describe every detail of it. A sailor-boy OF
twelve, hatless, and fair of face as the pic
lures OF the youthful Byron, sits up on tho
high main crOss-trees of the ship, his back Ia
the mast, his left hand graspiDg one of the
ropes by which he has assembled to this dizzy
height, his left foot braced against cross-ropes
his right foot swinging, his right hand rest
ing on the timber OF tue cross tree. His flax.
Gu hair ana the loose ends OF his neckerchiei
are blowing out; yet there is not wind
enough below to Iutil5 the ocean, for, far
down and far away TO the horizon, you see it
stretching as placid as a pond. An albatross
is flying about the ship-the only other liv-
ing creature in sight. There he sits, cling
ing to the rope, his blue eyes gazing off over
the wide ocean-O, so eagerly.
For years past they have come to me- my
children and grandchildren, and begged me
to tell them about this handsome little sailor.
"There must be some story about him, -
has been the common rem ,rk.
Indeed there is, my dear, and good one.
You shall hear it"
The time has come when it has been told
to all of them; even to little Minnie, who
has not yet given up her dolls So now the
great, kind public shall be my children, aud
for the last time will | relate the story of this
brave sailor,boy.
When Captain Jacob Converse was about
to leave London with the good ship Cynthia,
laden with great variety of fancy articles
for traffic with the natives of the far.ofI
islands of the South Pacific, he bethought
him that he had not secured him a cabin
boy.
And what dye want of a cabin-boy ?"
asked his gruf mate, Mr.. Kinds. "a cabin
boy is mostly little vagabond who learns
nothing aboard ship but TO be lazy, to steal
the goodies out of your locker, and to tell tales
of you to the fo'castle / wouldn't have
such fellow about"
But the Captain and Mr.. Kinds differed
on this subject as they did on almost every
other Captain Converse was a mild and
merciful man, who knew something by ex-
perience of the hard lot of sailor, and wish
ed to make it easier. Mr.. Kinds, on the
contrary, had just one theory about Jack
Tar-Damely, that he was a worthless guZ-
z,er ashore, and a lazy, sulky animal ahoat,
and that all that could be got out of him at
sea must be got at the ropes end. He never
gave an order but with an oata, and the day
ON voyage that he did not knock down a
seaman, either with his fist or a handspike,
was rare day. Captain Converse deplored
his bad temper and savage ways, and had
often seriously talked with him on the sub
ject but he could not be changed. The fact
was, the Captain was too easy a man to be
10 authority anywhere, and especially over
such tyrannical brute as Kinds was. The
crews of his ships suffered everything, because
the Captain had not force of character
enough TO interfere between the mate and
the men. And lie kept Mr.. Kinds in place
because he found him useful his knowledge
of navigation was great and he had sailed in
almost every known sea.
Against his protest. the Captain engaged
cabin-boy for this voyage. He was the
orphan grandson of one tie legless veterans
OF the Royal Navy, and he had been about
Greenwich Hospital SO much, and heard so
many stirring stories of the sea from the dis
abled and superannuated tars laid up
there, that he was longing to make voyage.
Captain Converse liked the bright looks and
manly talk, and took him on this voyage
The boys name was Rodney Barre.
1t is not necessary TO the proper under
standing of the story that all that befell the
ship and her crew ON the voyage down the
Atlantic and around the Horn should he told.
1t was voyage of many weeks, as it is now,
under sail. The Captain was mild and easy
as ever the mate was quite as brutal as he
had ever been known TO be, and the quick,
bright cabin-boy kept his eyes and ears open
ana learned something new every day about
sca-faring.
1t Was when the Cynthia had got well up
In the low ATTITUDES of the Pacific that a great